We Are Young (Amongst The Bumps In the Road)
by XSilverLiningsX
Summary: [Classic High School AU, Fiona/Lann, references to Karok/Kirstie and Vella/someone] Lann has problems, but that doesn't keep him from being a great friend; plus, that one moment where he became so much more. Warnings for bullying, implied mental illness, harassment, language, hate crime, and violence. Individual chapter warnings inside.
1. Monday

**Chapter Warnings: **

Bullying, sexual harassment, language, violence.

* * *

**Fiona**

Monday afternoons always found Lann standing by the iron wrought gates of Rocheste Preparatory High School, hands tucked into the pockets of his favorite hoodie, as he scanned through the dwindling crowd of students for older-by-a-year Fiona as she left the last class she had for the day.

Lann waits for Fiona at the gates every Monday, 4 o'clock P.M. sharp, without fail to the point where he became a regular (if not odd) fixture at the prestigious academy. The security tried chasing him off a few times but after almost two and a half years of clock-like and routine visits without a single hint of trouble coming from the public school junior, the faculty just let him be. As long as he didn't actually step foot on the campus or start tagging the walls, the staff decided that he was welcome to wait at the gates.

With that said, he was a normal sight at the gates every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

On this particular Monday, it just so happened that he spotted someone, no doubt one of the boys from the famed football team from the looks of it, tagging behind Fiona as she walked towards the front gates. As she drew nearer, Lann could hear through the chattering of other students that whatever the other boy was jabbering on about, it definitely was _not_ nice. The disgruntled and disgusted look on Fiona's pinched face was proof of that, and Fiona was rarely irritated by someone.

"—such a stuck up, prissy, bitch! D'you think you're too good for me, is that it? Answer me, ice bitch!" The boy was huffing away, face red with indignation. It didn't take a genius to determine that Fiona had rejected the boy's advances. It was clear why.

"Let's go. Now." Fiona was tense, everything from the tone of her voice to her quick walking pace, as she breezed past Lann with a blank expression. He followed after her in silence down a few streets, but the boy simply wouldn't _give up_.

The other boy clearly wasn't done yet and was getting increasingly angry at being ignored. He made to grab Fiona's shoulder, but Lann turned around and shoved his hand away with a fierce scowl. The boy snarled back.

"Go away." Lann drew himself up threateningly despite being a good few inches shorter than the other boy and lighter by twenty stones. "You're being an asshat."

"I wasn't fucking talking to–" He was interrupted when Lann bashed his forehead against the other boy's nose with a resounding _crack!_ and sent him crashing to the sidewalk, dazed beyond belief with his bruised nose leaking a trail of blood.

The boy, his hands cupped over his bleeding nose, managed to croak out, "I'll havth you reported! I can sue you for hitthing me!"

Lann eyed the boy before shrugging nonchalantly. "Fiona can report you for sexual harassment, and you don't even know my name, do you?"

The boy spluttered and Lann turned to Fiona, who had watched the brief exchange with exasperation on her face. The girl shook her head and resumed walking away at a sedate pace, silent. Lann followed, leaving the other boy (he was nameless to Lann at the moment, but Fiona probably knew him) sitting on the concrete.

The two walked to Fiona's house, neither saying a word, but when they reached their destination Fiona stopped in front of the picket fence gate; she didn't open the gate and instead opted to glance at Lann with a contemplative look on her face as she adjusted the strap of her messenger bag. Lann leaned against the fence, arms crossed against his chest and saying nothing in response to Fiona's sudden scrutiny.

"You shouldn't have done that. I can handle myself." Fiona's statement came out more like an exasperated sigh. Lann looked up and into her eyes.

"I know, but a bruised ego is easier to explain than a bruise in the shape of a shoe." Lann broke eye contact and briefly looked down at her one-inch heels before settling back on her face. "Or missing testicles."

"True." Fiona huffed a soft laugh and pushed the gate open. The rusty hinges creaked loudly and a pigeon sitting on the fence cooed before flying away with a flap of its wings. "Do you want to come in?"

Lann shook his head and uncrossed his arms. "I've got to go back. Ellis. Chores."

Fiona smiled and didn't point out the way Lann always never said that he was going home because she knew that the rehabilitation center for _displaced_ children in downtown Colhen was _not_ a real home.

Lann smiled back, uncertainly and adorably shy, before he tucked his hands back into his pockets and hurried away with his head down. Fiona watched him disappear around the corner before opening her front door.


	2. Tuesday

**Chapter Warnings:**

Bullying, harassment.

* * *

**Evie**

It was Tuesday, and Lann was standing at the front gates of Rocheste Preparatory like he always did. As usual, students passed by him with either a perfunctory glance of recognition or polite greeting. They didn't really seem to care about finding out who he was, but they tolerated his shabbily-dressed presence with no more than a bat of an eyelash after so long.

As per most Tuesdays, he was waiting for Evie to show up so they could walk over to the soccer field in the community center downtown. The petite girl was a year younger than him, but she could talk up a storm of interesting things without pausing for breath if she wanted to. Sometimes whatever she wanted to talk about went over Lann's head, like how Shakespeare sounded funky in modern Greek or how frustrating computer code felt to her, but he paid attention regardless and made noises whenever he thought it was appropriate.

Lann knew he wasn't as _intelligent_ as Evie was, it was very hard to surpass her insatiable thirst for knowledge of any kind and her access to innumerable resources, but he was damn proud of her (mostly because he knew that her parents didn't give two shits that she loved soccer and were trying to pour her into the mold of a computer engineer). He knew she was bound to go places he couldn't, but until then he was there for her to bounce ideas off of. Evie saw him as her mentor for all the things she couldn't learn from a book, and Lann was determined not to fail the girl that was practically like a little sister to him.

That last thought made him pause when he saw Evie trudging dejectedly towards him, her face swollen and flushed as if she had spent the last hour crying her eyes out. Worried but wary, Lann waited for Evie to either go to him or run off in another direction. If she wanted privacy, he understood.

Despite reassuring himself that she physically looked fine from where he was standing, a familiar panic began to claw its way up his spine. Evie was crying, she was hurting, something hurt her, something has gone terribly wrong and this was _certainly_ not in the plan because _this was not in the plan and _**_somebody-hurt-her_**—

Evie didn't turn away, however, and when she reached him she wrapped her thin arms around his waist and sniffled into his jacket. The panic melted off of him slowly but surely, and hesitantly Lann drew her closer into an awkwardly stiff hug he hoped was comforting as she burst into quiet tears.

Lann held her for as long as she needed and didn't say a word. He would wait. He was good at waiting. Very good, in fact.

When Evie's sobs subsided into rasping breaths and she felt like she could speak coherently, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Do you think I–I'm ugly? B–be honest, please…"

Lann rested his chin on the top of her head. Why do people have to ask these questions? "I think you know that people aren't defined by a single word."

Evie buried her face deeper into his stained jacket, her voice muffled in the fabric. "I–It's just… I know… but it gets tiring when it seems like we're the only ones who believe that."

Lann was silent for a moment before he chanced a guess. "Those girls again?"

Evie nodded against his chest and Lann tightened his hold a little. "We like you because of you, not because of how you look, unlike those girls – at least you don't force yourself to slather on two pounds of make up to feel like yourself."

It wasn't an award worthy speech, but he meant every word. He always did.

"Why do you always know how to say the best things to cheer me up?" Evie squeezed him tightly before letting go, her face brightening into a small smile. Lann let her go so she could wipe at her eyes with her sleeves.

He squinted at her curiously. Why would his words be different than the others? Anyways, if nobody told her these things, who would? "You deserve to have someone say them."

Evie's smile grew into a fond grin that made her eyes water all over again. "You… no wonder she…"

"Do you want to go?" Lann shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable at the mention of someone else, and Evie took pity on him as she wiped away her newest batch of tears. The sun was in a different position than the last time he had looked at it. They'd been standing there for quite a long while.

Evie checked her watch and winced. It was extremely late. "Practice is over."

"There's always next time." Lann kicked a pebble out into the street. "We'd better get you home."

"Yeah. We should go." Evie took one step but then stopped and turned to face Lann with a hopeful look on her tear-stained face. "Can I have a piggy back ride? My house really isn't that far from here."

Lann scratched the back of his neck and looked, really _looked_, at Evie. She certainly was light enough, but, well… he shrugged. What was the harm in letting her? "Alright."

Evie squealed and launched herself at him, almost as cheerful as her normal self. Lann was right in his assessment, seeing as Evie felt like she weighed _nothing_. Did her parents even feed her? That was a worrying thought. He really hoped they did.

Evie chatted nonstop about unit circles and trigonometric angles as Lann slowly made his way down the street. He didn't have the heart to tell her that Calculus was inundated with the mathematical buggers.


	3. Wednesday

**Chapter Warnings:**

Bullying, harassment, violence, language.

This chapter is for Lyelentu.

* * *

**Karok **

Wednesday afternoons always came in the form of visiting the old school coin-op arcade next to a greasy pizza joint with Karok. Occasionally Kirstie, a senior from Rocheste Prep and Karok's (extremely sassy) girlfriend, joined them for a few rounds of pinball but the frown the older boy had on his face on this particular day made it clear that she didn't have the time to join them. It was a shame, really. She was amazing at pinball.

Karok, the only friend from his class Lann managed to make from Colhen Public High School in the past two and a half years, let out a disgruntled huff and threw his hands up in surrender when the asteroids he had been shooting at destroyed his last space ship for the fifteenth time with a noisy crunch; the game happily displayed a 'YOU LOSE' screen and demanded more coins. "Goddamnit, that was the last of my quarters, and I've only got fourth place!"

He turned to Lann, who had been dozing off in a chair as he watched his friend rage at the Asteroid game while waiting keeping an eye on the Pac-Man machines, and asked, "Hey man, can I have two quarters? I'll pay you back tomorrow."

Lann searched through his jean pockets and pulled out some lint and an old lollipop wrapper. With nothing but more lint coming out the pockets of his hoodie, he shrugged. "Sorry bro."

Karok deflated and looked longingly at his score on the screen.

"Well, too poor to afford your own gaming console? What a joke. I don't even know what Kirstie even sees in an oaf like you." A nasally sneer came from behind Karok and the boy craned his neck to see who had spoken.

Ah, Gallagher. The senior linebacker of the football team in Rocheste Prep. Oh look, he even had _groupies_ – two bulky looking teens that were most likely on the football team as well. Joy.

"Choke on a peanut, Gallagher." Karok turned his back to them and walked over to where Lann, eyes glazed over and thoughts far away, was sitting. He sat down in their booth and ignored the three smirking boys and watched a few elementary school girls bicker over a broken brawling simulator a few yards away.

"I bet your girlfriend does." Karok colored and glared at Gallagher as his friends chortled. His giant fists clenched and he painstakingly reigned in his anger. Lann frowned and righted an empty soda cup that had fallen over.

"You're a dickface. Leave." Lann's voice was like steel despite the distracted look in his eyes. He wasn't quite all there at the moment, his head fuzzy-feeling and lightheaded, but just enough to keep track of what was going on.

"Oooh, Karok's little bitch has teeth! I'm so scared! Hah!" Gallagher mock fainted and Lann's frown flatlined. Karok's glare intensified to the point where Lann absently wondered if he could set something on fire if he glared a _little_ harder…

"Hey, leave him out of this. You gonna pick a fight, you pick it with me." Karok must have some inkling that Lann wasn't at his best today, his mind in a place so far in space that the _Enterprise_ wouldn't be able to beam him back quick enough.

"Nah, I think this is better. Hey, bitch, you were gonna say som–" Gallagher wrapped an arm around Lann's shoulder but before the older boy could take more than two blinks, Lann had wrenched his arm off, shoved him away with a surprising force, and decked him square across the face.

Karok couldn't help but wince (on the inside of course, that bastard totally had it coming) when he heard the crunch of nose cartilage against bony knuckles. Gallagher crumpled to the floor, his friends scampering out the door like chickens, and Karok managed to pull Lann back before he ended up stomping the other boy's eyes out as he writhed in pain on the thin carpet. A bored employee was coming to see what the fuss was about, and a few patrons sitting in the dining area were curiously peeking over the divider.

"Dude, that was… awesome." At Lann's slightly unhinged grin of satisfaction, Karok hastily added, "But let me do the talking alright? We might be in some trouble…"

The employee hauled Gallagher up and looked at the boy's bloody nose and then at Karok and Lann. From the pissed look on the woman's face it was obvious that she had more than one complaint about the annoying boy but she hadn't really expected someone to bloody him up. The lady sighed and gave the two boys a look of exasperation.

"Scram, alright? All three of ya. Nobody never saw anything, and don't come back until y'all can refrain from antagonizing each other over a freakin' video game. Kids these days…" Karok took the initiative to drag a puzzled Lann out with him. Gallagher staggered out behind them, took one look at Lann's blank face, and then ran as if hellhounds were at his heels.

Karok shaded his eyes from the bright sunshine that was completely different from the dimly lit interior of the arcade. Well, their afternoon might have ended up being thrown to the dogs but it _was_ still salvageable. Sort of.

"Thanks stepping up for me. Didn't expect it, but, uh… It kinda was a little overkill, but who cares. That slug across the face was badass." Thanking people was one thing, but thanking friends was a whole different system that Karok fumbled with. Lann was a little too out of it at the moment to really notice, though.

"That's what friends do. Watch each others' backs n' everything." Karok frowned; Lann looked a little pale. The smaller boy always had problems with his blood pressure, or something like that. Medical stuff that went way over his head, but Evie probably knew tons about it. When was the last time he saw the other boy eating something sugary? Or anything at all?

"Not just any friend. A great one." Karok didn't need to be as smart as Evie or study as much as Fiona to know that great friends were more valuable than the best football equipment money could buy.

Lann blinked slowly, as if he just realized he was standing outside of the arcade. "Whatever you say, big guy."

Karok stretched his arms above his head. What to do, now that their main form of entertainment was gone for the day…

"Hey, want to get some milkshakes? I think I've got a ten somewhere in my backpack." Lann practically lit up at the mention of sugar.

"Why not?"


	4. Thursday

**Chapter Warnings:**

Bullying, harassment, hate crime, violence, and language.

* * *

**Kai**

Thursdays were a tricky sort, but Lann was as stubborn as a mule whenever he decided to do something – especially if it concerned his friends. Right on time, like any other day on the week, he waited on the other side of the gates of Rocheste Preparatory in his customary hoodie despite the sweltering heat.

His routine for Thursdays was relatively simple: he was going to walk with Kai over to the small library situated downtown and study for a few hours before walking the other boy home afterwards. He would then return to the shelter to watch over Ellis and finish up leftover homework. At first the older boy had protested, grumbling that he didn't need a scruffy-looking underclassman following him around _because that was just too damn creepy_ but sometime later Evie and Fiona pulled him aside and talked at him for a good half hour.

After that _talk_, Kai had simply sighed in resignation and let Lann add him to his 'routine.' Everything ran so much smoother once he agreed, of course.

Lann nodded absently at some of the nicer students (he could vaguely pick out Marrec and Ceara from the group) that waved at him while passing by. The lightheadedness and dizzy spells were becoming more frequent, but he sucked up the aches and shoved the feelings into a corner of his mind. He'd rather have the sudden chills and creeping nausea than the dreaded _numbness_ of everything. The medication had a habit of doing all of that, and so much more.

He hated his medication. He hated that he wasn't _mentally sound_ enough to be able to file for emancipation and take care of Ellis on his own. But, despite it all, he couldn't bring himself to hate the shelter. It wasn't home, but it was better than being on the streets; the streets were infinitely more dangerous than a few pills he had to take daily, courtesy of the government and for the safety of everyone around him at any given moment.

His routine was more important than some damn pills that shoved his static-y brain into the cross section between _stone-stupid_ and _the-fuck-are-emotions_, but he needed Ellis and Ellis needed him so he took his medication like a good boy.

Lann blinked dazedly as a hand worriedly waved over his face. He had stopped by outer space again and forgot to haul his ass back to Earth.

Kai was here. Time to go.

The boys walked to the library in two _very_ different silences. Lann was spacing out too often and several times Kai had to drag him back on the curb before a car would run him over (jackasses, all of them). Kai brooded, he always did, but his friend's stranger than normal behavior was setting up alarms in his head that something was _wrong_.

When the other boy wasn't paying attention (which seemed like most of the time), Kai studied Lann's features. There was the beginning of a flush on his pale cheeks and he looked unhealthily thin, as if he couldn't keep down food long enough. The dark circles under his unusually-bright eyes attested to a lack of sleep or inability to stay asleep.

Kai wasn't a doctor or anything, but just from looking at him he knew that if Lann kept pushing himself past his limits like he was doing now for whatever fucked up reason he had in his head, he'd have either a psychotic breakdown or crack his head open from a fall. Lann was never built to bend too far, or he'd break into pieces like a glass cannon.

"Hey guys, it's that pansy from archery." Kai ignored the jabs from his peers as he walked past them, one hand on Lann's elbow to guide the absent-minded boy through the everyday perils of city life.

Evie once tried to rationalize that they were just jealous rich-kid pricks that hated the fact that he got into Rocheste Prep on a rare scholarship and ranked so much higher than them in practically everything. Kai didn't really give two shits about those assholes.

"Hey, he's even brought his boyfriend along! Fucking faggots!" That wasn't a new insult at all, but to drag Lann into this was absolutely horrifying. Lann turned his head slightly to the side, but Kai ushered him along. It was best to get as far away from the dumbfucks as possible before he snapped and kicked their brains out.

He took a lesson from Karok and flipped the other kids off with his free hand.

Kai narrowly avoided getting hit with a rock aimed at his head, but Lann jerked to the side, his eyes wide in panic as he stumbled against the wall with a hand pressed against the side of his head; one of the kids had thrown a fucking _glass bottle_ at him!

"Faggots! Suck my dick!" The blood was trailing down Lann's face and coated his hand in a sticky film. Lann turned around slowly, brought into full awareness but there was a confused look on his face before it melted away into an unsettling blankness.

Kai was extremely worried, now. Through the matted mess of his friend's hair, he thought he glimpsed a slit of white bone. Not to mention the trauma-

Lann looked each one of the four boys in the eyes before grinning, baring all of his teeth in a grotesque parody of a smile, some of his teeth smeared with his blood, before charging straight at the boys.

It was quite amazing to see that Lann wasn't just fast, he was _really fucking fast_, but this kind of attention was calling for some serious trouble. Police-level trouble, if Kai couldn't calm his crazy and slightly insane friend down _right this fucking moment_.

Lann delivered a violent collision between his fist and a boy's gut. The kid didn't even last another second before collapsing to the cement and throwing up his lunch. Another kid got painful kick at the knee, the leg almost snapping back the wrong way, and he bawled as he fell over.

Lann cracked his knuckles. The other two boys prepared to flee, but Kai tackled them (a move that Karok would have undoubtedly applauded) and smashed their faces to the floor hard enough that a few teeth may have come loose.

The four boys groaned and moaned from where they laid on the sidewalk. Lann staggered over to lean against the brick wall and spat some blood in their direction. He let out a ragged breath, and his eyes kept trying to roll back in his sockets. "F-f-f-fuckers."

"Forget them. Hospital, now." Kai wasted no time in throwing Lann's arm around his shoulder and began to drag his friend to the clinic that was three blocks down from the alley _where they had just fought for their lives holy fuck_.

One block away from the clinic, Kai jostled Lann with every other step so that the other boy would hold his head up. The tiny Evie-voice screaming in the back of Kai's mind told him to keep Lann from passing out, but he wasn't sure that he could after how much blood (fuck it was _too much_) Lann had lost. Hell, his skull could've caved in and Kai wouldn't be able to tell _jack shit_.

"The fuck were you thinking? You get smashed with a bottle and the first thing you do is run back?" Kai never swore out loud as much as he did today, but having his (_stupid, crazy, insane, take your pick_) friend bleeding out from the head was as good as any other reason.

"M'hurts…"

"OF FUCKING COURSE IT HURTS." Kai was panicking. He never panicked. Well, he was panicking right this very moment.

"Nooo… d'hurtyou…" Kai angrily hauled Lann through the sliding doors.

"Shut up! Stop talking!" Two calm nurses tried to pry a sluggishly frantic Lann off Kai.

"No…t Ssorr…y."

"Get your head stitched up and _then_ you can say you're fucking sorry!" The combined efforts of the nurses finally got Lann strapped down to a gurney and he was wheeled off somewhere to close up that hole in his head.

Kai allowed a nurse to direct him to a plastic chair so the scrapes on his knuckles and arms could be cleaned. He glared intensely at a magazine rack on the other side of the otherwise waiting room, but he could feel himself relax a little on the inside now that Lann was getting treatment. Kai's head thumped against the wall behind him.

_Hurt you? Not sorry?_

That _cheeky_ _bastard_.


	5. Friday

**Chapter Warnings:**

Mentions of dubcon, victim-blaming, and mental instability.

* * *

**Vella**

Lann signed himself out from the clinic on a muggy Friday night the moment the hole in his head had fully healed over. The nurses had shaved his hair down to an unsightly buzz to put in the stitches, but there wasn't anything he could really do about it except wait for it to grow back.

Before he left, a doctor brought in a female police officer who asked if he wanted to report a crime. Lann shrugged, wrote down Kai's cell phone number on a slip of paper, and handed it to her. The other boy would handle it.

The clinic was nice enough to also treat him for the surprise infection that was making his brain chew on itself whenever he wasn't looking. The infection had been screwing with his side effects of his anxiety meds to the point where he was on the verge of having a seizure in the waiting room when he had been dragged in. After a few round of antibiotics, he felt so much better than he had in what he felt was a long, long time. He felt _sane_.

His friends visited the whole week whenever they could but Lann just wanted to go back to his routine. He needed to go back to Ellis, and his head was as clear as it ever got while pumped up on pain meds.

On the subject of his routine, Fridays were wildcards to Lann. Instead of walking over to the gates of the Prep or standing at a street corner around Colhen High after school ended, he might end up at the park with Ellis for a few hours or in a downtown diner for pancakes.

Anything seemed possible on Fridays, and to Lann this day was just that. Nothing more and nothing less. He flicked the hood of the jacket that the clinic had loaned him over his head and took a step into the pouring rain. The clinic-issued sweats and tee were equally thin and worn, but it was better than nothing.

First stop, the bus. The receptionist had also been kind enough to give him just enough change for the ride home. There was no way in hell that he was going to willingly walk back to the shelter in the rain.

When Lann reached the bus shelter, he noticed a girl sitting there. She was shivering and soaked to the bone, her revealing clothes retaining no heat and almost see-through as she hugged herself. He sat down slowly, a good three feet of space between them, and she glanced at him warily.

Lann knew this girl. She was from his school. Her name was… it started with a V?

V… V…Vel. No, there's more to it… Vel… Vell… Vell…a! Vella! A cheerleader for the football team. She usually looked happy whenever he happened to see her in the halls, hanging off the arm of some boy, but she wasn't _nice_. She had thrown a banana peel and an apple core at him when he tripped over her bag that one time in sophomore year.

She looked absolutely miserable.

Lann shrugged off his jacket and dropped it next to him on the bench before shoving it over with a push. The piece of clothing slid over and hit Vella's thigh. She startled, looked at the jacket, and at then at him.

Lann fixed his eyes on the stop sign on the other side of the street. He didn't feel like making eye contact. He didn't _know_ her.

From the corner of his eye, he saw her put on the jacket and wrap her arms even closer around herself. Her full-body shakes turned into manageable shivers.

"Thanks." Vella's voice was so soft that the drumming of the rain almost drowned out what she said. Lann thought that the softness didn't match her; from what little he knew, she had seemed like a girl raised with knives in both hands and an equally sharp tongue. The softness was the sound of betrayal, a crack in a mirror that was once precious but now chipped and worthless.

Not quite unlike himself, Lann mused. The thought quickly disappeared, however. He didn't like to think about himself; he usually ended up disappointed.

"No problem." Vella started laughing, the quiet puffs of air that gave way to dry sobs in a few moments.

"A stranger that's nicer than my own boyfriend. How crazy is that?" Lann shifted uncomfortably.

"Do… do you want to talk?" He wasn't sure what to say, but listening was always an option to put on the table.

"My… boyfriend. Well, ex-boyfriend. I didn't want to, but he pushed and pushed at it and… I'm pregnant. He left town this morning." Vella hiccoughed and wiped at her eyes, further smearing her face with streaks of dark mascara that hadn't been washed away by the rain. "I'm barely passing school, how can I take care of a baby? I don't even have a job. My sister's going to kill me. Oh, god, my sister."

Lann thought of himself, of Ellis, and of the other kids in the shelter. The foster care system wasn't at its best (too many hungry mouths and not enough of everything), but neither was a teenager having an abortion.

Both had repercussions that would last several lifetimes, if one were unlucky. He knew that, for sure. Lann _knew_, and sometimes he wished he _didn't_.

"Was it…" Lann swallowed thickly, the word he was looking for was stuck in his throat and brought up too much _emotional baggage_. "… consensual?"

"I– I don't know. I… think I agreed because he just wouldn't stop _pushing_. I thought it was going to be special." Vella paused and wiped angrily at the new set of tears that formed. "He just pushed me down and… did it. It didn't feel… good. Not for me, at any rate."

Lann leaned back in his seat and shut his eyes. People thought _he_ was dangerous to others so they stuck him on meds while there were those _other_ people walking around, free as honey bees. At least real bees were productive. The human-bees did nothing but spread trouble as far as they could go.

"Oh god, what if it was my fault? Maybe… maybe I–" Lann's eyelids snapped open and he lurched forward onto his feet._ No, no, not again, nonono, too much_ _like_–

"NO!" Vella jumped in her seat when he got up and shouted at the air. She defensively pressed her back against the metal of the bench, her eyes wide. This guy was _crazy_. "NOT YOUR FAULT!"

The crippling anxiety sank its claws into Lann's brain again. He was hyperventilating. He needed– he needed his pills. But he didn't have his pills. He forced himself to sit back down and ground his teeth together, his posture as tense as a coil ready to spring. His knuckles were white from how hard he was gripping the bench seat.

"Not your. F-fault. Not your f-fault." He repeated this at a lower volume. _Don't shout_, he could hear a tiny-Fiona-voice mentally scolding him, _It's not the time or place._

"Man, you have _problems_." Vella eyed him with a weary look on her face. It was dark out and bum-fuck freezing, the bus was late by nearly half an hour, and she was stuck waiting with a somewhat retarded kid. It could've been worse… she could've been mugged by the crazy kid. He seemed nice (if not a little unstable). "But thanks… for listening. And the jacket."

"You looked cold." The panic had eased up a bit and the heavy weight pressing against his ribcage relaxed a smidge. A bellowing honk of a vehicle drew Lann's attention. The bus was here. He could breathe a little easier, now.

Lann was up the steps on the bus when he noticed that Vella was still sitting under the awning of the small shelter. "You're not going?"

Vella's lips turned down into a bitter frown and her hands twisted in the fabric of her borrowed jacket. "I don't have any money. That bastard threw my purse out on the freeway before he kicked me out of his car down here."

Lann handed the bus fare to the driver and told the man to wait a moment (no one else was on the bus, as this was the last run before closing time). He climbed down the steps and stopped in front of Vella.

"You can go. Home." She looked up at him in disbelief.

"What?"

"I paid the driver. Go home."

Vella's eyes watered, but she held her tears back. A total stranger was being so _kind_ to her, for no reason at all, after such a shitty day. "I– thank you. What's your name? I'll pay you back, I swear–"

"Don't. Go home and tell your sister." Lann was determined to help however he could, and by god he would. Even if that meant he was going to walk through the rain all the way back to the shelter.

Vella tried to give him the jacket back, but Lann shook his head and took a step back. It seemed like she needed the comfort it gave more than he did. "The bus is going to leave if you don't get on."

Reluctantly, Vella boarded and as the bus rumbled slowly away she looked out of the window and watched the haggard and scrawny boy disappear in a thick curtain of rain.

"Nice kid, ain't he?" Vella turned to the driver when the man spoke.

"He didn't even know me, and he…" The driver chuckled lowly as the bus lurched around a corner.

"Yeah, he does that. He's got a few screws loose in that head of his. I offered both of you kids a free ride since it's really late out, but he insisted that he pay."

_Loose screws_? Perhaps if everyone would loosen the right screws, the world could be a better place.

"Do… do you know his name? Or what school he goes to?" The bus driver could help her find that kid again. He seemed knowledgeable about the boy.

"Probably the public school. He doesn't look like someone with money." He was right. The only two high schools in town were the public one and Rocheste Prep.

Vella wiped at the streaks of mascara on her face with her sleeve. The driver hummed as a stoplight turned green. The bus turned down another street, and Vella knew she was close to home.

She took a deep breath. Vella would tell her sister, and she would help her get through this nightmare turned lucid dream. She wasn't going to let one stupid mistake ruin her entire life.

It would take time, but she would be fine.


	6. Saturday

Fiona hadn't been exactly born into a wealthy family, but from a very early age it was clear that she held high standards for herself, courtesy of the influence that her childhood friend, Evie, had unwittingly poured into her. Her eccentric father, widowed with a dead wife that had generously left enough money in her will to make sure that the family was able to live comfortably for a good portion of their lives, made sure that Fiona was well aware for the intricacies of joining a prestigious school that probably valued heritage and blood money rather than actual intelligence.

It had been Evie's wheedling and nagging that Fiona had even thought of applying for admittance into Rocheste Preparatory High School with just her high marks from a nondescript middle school and a slew of accolades from her volunteer group leaders backing her up.

To say that she had been surprised that she had been accepted into the academy was an understatement.

Hidden under the elation of her success was a lingering feeling of dread as she thought of the boy she had befriended during her years in the volunteer services. She would be leaving him behind with her foray into a high school across the town, no doubt about that, but… Fiona didn't want to.

She liked him, that raggedy teen from the rehabilitation shelter that doted over his little brother whenever he could and worked hard to make the most of the current limits of his life. He had his occasional fits of anxiety, a worrying obsession with daily routines, and didn't really like anyone but Ellis touching him, but despite his problems he was the greatest friend she ever had that was a guy.

She was knew that wherever he went, she would follow. Once, when she had asked, he had admitted that he would do the same if he could. That day, he let Fiona hold his hand as they walked around the park with Ellis toddling next to them.

When she had relayed her worries to her father, the man had simply laughed and said she was in love.

Two and a half years later in the early hours of a Saturday morning, she belatedly realized that she, indeed, was head over heels for the boy that waited (and still waits) at the gates of her school every Monday afternoon to walk her home.

Not sleepy in the least, Fiona turned over in her bed and squinted at her alarm clock; it was just past one o'clock a.m. A quick tap-tap-tap on the glass doors that led to her balcony made her look up curiously. There wasn't a tree anywhere near the balcony doors, so why was there knocking…? She knew that the downpour didn't make that kind of noise against the glass.

The quick tap-tap-tap came again. Something was tapping on her door. She wasn't dreaming.

Fiona pulled a warm robe over her pajamas and reached for her baseball bat. Just in case.

She peeked through a slit in the curtains and saw a familiar shaved head. Oh.

Fiona put the bat down before pulling aside the curtains. Lann, his thin clothes soaked completely through, nervously shifted from foot to foot. He gave a sheepish smile and wrapped his arms around himself.

Well, then.

Fiona let him in and he dripped all over the carpet in her bedroom. Silently, she directed him towards the bathroom so he could dry off. How long had he been standing outside in the freezing rain without a jacket? Was he even supposed to be out of the clinic today?

A towel-wrapped monstrosity walked out of her bathroom and through the folds of the fluffy towels came a muffled chatter of teeth, "C-c-can I s-s-s-stay f-f-for the n-n-night? I-I-I-I can s-sleep on the f-f-f-floor…"

Fiona sighed and ran a hand through her hair. There was no way that she was going to let him go back out until the rain stopped and his clothes were dry. "The bed's big enough, we can share. Get out of your wet clothes and hang them in the tub. I'll put them in the dryer tomorrow… er, keep your underwear on."

"Al… right." The towel-covered boy padded back into the bathroom. The door closed behind him.

Fiona hung her robe over the back of the chair next to her desk and went back to bed. It was late, and she'd deal with everything else tomorrow.

After a few minutes, the other half of the bed dipped with a creak of springs and Lann settled on the edge of the mattress, leaving as much space possible between their bodies.

Fiona rolled her eyes in the darkness. She wasn't going to do anything, and she was sure as hell that he wasn't going to try anything either.

"You can come closer. You might fall off if you roll over." An eye peeked from where he had hidden his face under the extra pillow. The teen shifted over a few inches, close enough that Fiona felt a hand brushing against hers.

She carefully laced her fingers with Lann's.

He didn't pull away.


	7. Authors Notes

**Notes, Notes Notes!**

I happened to come across this idea when I looked into the Avatar Shop and saw the school uniforms and went, hey, why not?

Except, my high school experience wasn't exactly peaches and cream, and I know that no matter how nice you may think your school is, there's always those kinds of kids that ruin everything.

This story is dedicated to raising awareness of bullying and harassment. It's everywhere, from our schools to our homes and our workplaces. Abuse should NOT be tolerated, ever.

Not to mention the propensity in bullying and harassment that almost always ends up swept under the rug and never heard of again.

Sometimes I get sick of stories where school is like a utopia and love is passed around like candy. That's not how it works in real life, folks, but I'm sure most of us know that. Especially not for people who don't fit the norm.

So, I decided to write about what if our heroes and heroines were in high school, but _not_ the popular kids or the well-liked-by-everyone groupies.

I was originally going to give Lann A.D.H.D., but seeing as that's a little overdone in media I stuck him with an anxiety disorder (mostly because I have personal experience with that, haha) with a smidgen of O.C.D. and topped with the truckload of stress of having no parents (because _somebody_ needs to be an orphan and I love torturing Lann hahaha cough).

Everyone else more or less stayed as they were, and I tweaked a little bit of their 'personalities' to fit whatever I had thought out for the moment.

Fiona/Lann... I don't know, but the pairing fits. :)

I nearly almost wasn't going to post this story, but... eh. I was so hyped up that I stayed up until 4 in the morning to bash out half of this story. The rest of the day I spent finishing it. At the very least, thanks for reading.

**Also, shameless advertising:**

GO READ **JENNI N**'S WORK! ALL OF THEM ARE BEAUTIFUL! :D


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